This workshop will provide attendees with opportunities for the development of their mentalizing skills using modelling by tutors, role-play in small groups and one to one role-play with an actor under the supervision of Gerry Byrne and Evelyn McCabe. Skills will include maintaining the basic mentalizing stance, clarification, exploration, challenge and affect focus. Some attendees (depending on number of requests) will have the opportunity to work under supervision on challenging scenarios from their own clinical practice/workplace.

*Attendees ideally should have some knowledge of MBT, for instance, have already completed MBT Basic Training, MBT Skills Training or similar or be utilizing MBT skills in practice. The workshop can accommodate newcomers to MBT provided they have familiarised themselves with the model and theoretical underpinnings which can be found in books such as; Mentalizing in Clinical Practice, Allen J. and Fonagy, P.; Handbook of Mentalizing in Mental Health Practice, Bateman, A.W. and Fonagy P..

Gerry Byrne is a Consultant Nurse and Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist (Tavistock) and Clinical Lead for the Family Assessment and Safeguarding Service (FASS), the ReConnect Service and the Infant Parent Perinatal Service (IPPS). He is based in Oxford, UK. He is a Mentalizing Skills trainer at the Anna Freud Centre. In April 2014, with Peter Fonagy and Anthony Bateman he ran the first MBT Basic Training in Ireland and has developed an MBT programme for parents which is currently underway in Buckinghamshire (ReConnect) and is being independently evaluated by the Anna Freud Centre/UCL.

Dr Evelyn McCabe is a Consultant Psychiatrist in General Adult Psychiatry with a special interest in Psychotherapy and is based in Galway Mental Health Services. Dr McCabe set up and ran the first Mentalization Based Therapy treatment programme in the Republic of Ireland in Galway. She has trained in Basic and Advanced Mentalization Based Therapy at The Anna Freud Centre with Anthony Bateman and Peter Fonagy and is a Mentalizing Skills trainer.

Gerry Byrne is the clinical lead for the Family Assessment and Safeguarding Service (FASS), the ReConnect Service and the Infant Parent Perinatal Service (IPPS). The FASS service is delivered in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Wiltshire and Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES), ReConnect in Buckinghamshire and the IPPS service in Oxfordshire. FASS offers multidisciplinary assessments and treatments for severe parenting problems, including child abuse and neglect (physical, sexual and psychological maltreatment, and fabricated and induced illness). ReConnect provides a MBT Programme for parents (The Lighthouse MBT Programme) whose infants are considered at risk of disorganized attachment. IPPS works with parents and infants in the perinatal period treating antenatal and postnatal mental health difficulties including depression and anxiety disorder.

Gerry has trained in a wide range of evidence-based assessment tools including the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI, 1997), the Parent Development Interview (PDI, 2004), the Narrative Story Stem (2005) and the Ainsworth Strange Situation (ASS, 1997). He trained in Basic and Advanced Mentalization Therapy Skills with Peter Fonagy and Anthony Bateman and completed the course on Delivering MBT Skills to Mental Health Practitioners. He is a tutor at the Anna Freud Centre on the MBT Basic Skills Courses.

He provides expert evidence in legal proceedings on cases involving child abuse or neglect, assessment of parenting and where child placement is at issue.

Gerry is a tutor on the Masters in Psychoanalytic Observational Studies Course (Tavistock & UEL). He lectures at Oxford University on the clinical trainings for psychiatrists, psychotherapists and clinical psychologists and is an Honorary Principal Lecturer at Oxford Brookes University and external examiner to the Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Doctorate Programme at the Anna Freud Centre/University College London.

Gerry sits on the Editorial Board of the journal Child Abuse Review and is a member of the Clinical Reference Group on Perinatal Mental Health, which provides clinical advice to the NHS Commissioning Board for the strategic planning of specialist perinatal mental health services in the UK.

Gerry co-founded Children in Troubled Worlds with two colleagues in 2002; a not-for-profit organisation, to promote the work of child psychotherapists and the contributions psychoanalytic thinking can make to work with troubled children, adolescents and their families. Their ninth conference, Asylum took place on September 23rd 2011.

Gerry in conjunction with Janet Bolam (theatre director & writer) runs Between the Lines – Writers and Psychotherapists in conversation. Their 2012 autumn series featured poets Bernard O’Donoghue, David Constantine and Jane Draycott. He is co-organizer of the annual Psychoanalytic Poetry Festival at the Freud Museum (September 2013 and 27th September 2014).

DR EVELYN MCCABE is a Consultant Psychiatrist in General Adult Psychiatry with a special interest in Psychotherapy. She has recently been appointed to Galway Mental Health Services where she is commencing a Mentalization Based Therapy group. Prior to her current appointment she worked at the Department of Psychiatry, Galway University Hospital where she developed a Psychotherapy initiative.

Evelyn set up and ran the first Mentalization Based Therapy treatment programme in the Republic of Ireland for patients with repeated self-harm, Borderline Personality Disorder and complex treatment resistance with co-existing major Psychiatric disorder and Personality disorder.

Evelyn has previously worked with HSE West and Mayo Mental Health Services, also the Mental Health Commission, in Student Psychiatry (Galway Mayo Institute of Technology and National University of Ireland Galway) and in private practice.

She trained in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy at the Irish Institute for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in association with Trinity College Dublin. She has worked and taught in this field for many years.

Evelyn is a tutor on the MSc in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy course, Trinity College Dublin. She is a psychotherapy tutor and educational supervisor to the Western Regional Training Scheme in Psychiatry.

Evelyn trained in Basic and Advanced Mentalization Based Therapy at The Anna Freud Centre with Anthony Bateman and Peter Fonagy. She also completed the course on Delivering Mentalizing Skills to Mental Health Practitioners at the Anna Freud Centre and is a Mentalizing skills trainer.

Evelyn is a member of an international supervision group in Mentalization Based Therapy under the supervision of Dr Robin Kissell MD, Director, Borderline Personality Initiative, Semel Institute, University of California, Los Angeles and a member of the European Society for the Study of Personality Disorder.